1200 Persons Participate in Exodus Rally for Soviet Jews; Urge Nixon, U Thant to Act

Some 1,200 persons attending an “Exodus Rally for Soviet Jews” today outside Brooklyn Borough Hall signed petitions calling upon President Nixon and United Nations Secretary General U Thant to intervene with Soviet authorities to permit Soviet Jews to emigrate to the lands of their choice. Passersby joined in the petition-signing and dancing in the streets which followed the singing of Cantor Chaskele Ritter of Congregation Ahavath Israel of East Midwood. The rally was sponsored by the Brooklyn Jewish Community Council and the Brookiyn Division of the American Jewish Congress. City Comptroller Abraham D. Beame, told the rally, “we cannot neglect the thousands of Jews who want to come to Israel from Russia. Those people see Israel as their salvation as well as their sanctuary. We must not forget them. We must help their effort by bringing to the attention of the world and to the UN the need to assert their rights. through President Sebastian Leone called upon the civilized world to “join with us and with the Jews in urging Soviet authorities to allow the Jews of the Soviet Union to chose their own identity.” The Rev. Charles H. Straught Jr., executive director of the Brooklyn Division of the Council of Churches of New York, called upon all Americans – Christians and Jews – to urge the Soviet leaders to let the Jews leave.

The Reverend Joseph Konrad, representing the Most Rev. Francis J. Mugavero, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, noting that every human being has the “right to religious liberty,” called upon the audience to join in a call to Soviet leaders for religious liberties for Soviet Jews. Sol A. Liebman, president of the Community Council, said it was “fitting and proper that we demonstrate our support for the efforts of three million Jews to escape the repression of the Jewish religion and the Jewish culture.” Harold M. Jacobs, chairman of the board of organizations of the Union of Orthodox Congregations of America and a past president of the Council, said of the Jews of the Soviet Union, “They were born Jews and Jews they with to remain, We, the people of Brooklyn, 2,500,000 strong, cry out in the name of freedom ‘Let our people go.” Abe Klugsberg, executive director of the Brooklyn AJCongress, stated that “It is a crime against humanity to cut off the Soviet Jews from the rest of Jewry throughout the world. Opportunity must be given to Soviet Jews who desire to migrate to other lands, and to do so without hindrance and penalty.”